A photo of the mayor sleeping circulates the web a day after he criticizes a city employee for the same thing.
Just as the talk of the crack cocaine scandal involving Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford began to cease, he has been wrapped up in yet another predicament. This new blow to Ford’s credibility involved many elements: a call for dismissal, a number of embarrassing photos, and an accusation of hypocrisy.
According to the National Post article “As Rob Ford calls for firing of ‘sleeping’ worker…” by Joshi Viser, Mayor Ford recently made a bold statement calling for the firing of a city employee who was caught sleeping on the job. After a photo began circulating showing this employee who appeared to be asleep at his desk at a North York recreational centre, Mayor Ford decided to take it seriously and release some strong statements including, “If this is the case, I’m going to ask for the manager and the employee to be dismissed,” and “We cannot tolerate this.”
It was not even one day after Ford’s statements against this (apparently) sleeping city employee were released, that a photo began circulating showing an indiscretion of Ford’s own. This photo, originally taken two years prior, shows a seemingly asleep Rob Ford during a 22-hour meeting of the mayor’s executive committee in 2011. After being posted on some popular websites, the photo went viral. While this is not the first unflattering photo of Ford to make it to the press, it is certainly one that has sparked a lot of controversy, with some calling Ford the “world’s biggest hypocrite.”
Unlike the crack cocaine scandal that hit him over the summer, Ford responded to the backlash from this photo, not with silence, but with outright indignation. Ford flatly denied the accusations that he was sleeping on the job, saying “You know what, this is ridiculous. This is during the 24-hour meeting when deputants are every three minutes. It is so farfetched it is not even funny.” According to reports, he also stated, “Oh buddy, that’s not how I sleep.”
While the photo of Ford was originally taken two years ago, it has gained a lot of momentum in the media and online this past week. The main cause for criticism against Ford is the apparent hypocrisy in his recent attack against the city employee, where he appeared to be cracking down on city workers who slack off and fail to do their jobs.
The main difference between the photo of the city employee and that of Ford, is that the former was caught asleep at his desk, while Ford was caught during a meeting of the city council. For this reason, CUPE Local 79 president, Tim Maguire, defended the city employee saying, “Our assumption, until further information, is that this employee was on a mid-morning break.” According to the Huffington Post article, “Rob Ford denies sleeping…,” Maguire further criticized this attack on the city worker, calling it a “media stunt” to take attention away from the real issue of city services.
There is no way to prove if the city employee was really on a break, nor is there a way to prove if Ford was really asleep. Is calling Ford a hypocrite warranted, though? After this latest scandal, hopefully Ford will learn how unfair it is to be reprimanded when caught in a precarious situation, regardless of whether or not one actually is doing what they appear to be.